Tag Archives: SARAH BALLIET

I went for a walk the other night in the woods a few nights back, gathering my thoughts and contemplating my life, the world and the swath of brilliant stars above through the trees. Suddenly one of them moved, seeming to tumble towards me. It veered at the last moment, gliding to an astounding, silent and instantaneous stop among the trees a short distance away, and just above a small clearing. My heart raced, and I had a sense that I should run, but was so taken by this extraordinary moment I remained, even edging from the path, where the grass crunched lightly beneath my feet.

It was indeed an object of some sort. Odd that the light surrounding that smoothly polished body, the color of a blue opal was almost soothing. I angled towards a large maple, placing it partly between myself and the object. Though there w ere no markings seams or rivets of any kind I had a sense that it turned, as though facing me directly.

I had no impression or recollection of a door opening. but I was immediately aware of an opening, and all at once a small figure standing before me.

I might have been shocked or frightened, but I was now looking into the deepest, darkest pools of a small creature’s eyes. There was no emotion in the creature’s pale face, only a feeling that I had nothing at all to fear.

“Thank you,” the creature said.
I can’t say if it was a male of female voice, and I had no impression that its thin lips moved at all. And it wasn’t in my head, but seemed to be in some space between us, where common air existed and in which our own thoughts remained our own.

“Thank you?” I asked. “I, uh, I have a feeling I should be thanking,” I chuckled. “I really don’t know what…”

“Its understandable. You’ll have a million questions tomorrow, but not a single one right now, am I correct?” said the being.

“Wow,” was all I could think to say. “I suppose I’m not representing the species too well that I can’t come up with one interesting thing to say, huh?”

“So why don’t I do the talking and see if I can’t anticipate a few thousand of those questions. How’s that?’

“Thank you.”

“There is so much,” began the being. “We just haven’t time for…You are devout to your world, and more devout to your species, and paramount to yourselves. So are we all. You are a miracle. I am a miracle, just as all life is throughout the universe; and it is great indeed. All of us are the consciousness or a great universal organism. If you take nothing from this, understand that the circle of life is around you in ways yet to be fully imagined. Your world is not merely a host that carries life. It is a living thing, just as the galaxy and universe, and all of the universes are so much more. They are teeming, and they are life themselves. Render them from this moment forward in that light and you will begin a new paradigm…of, crap, look at the time. I really have to fly.”

“Wait,” I exclaimed, ignoring his terrible pun. The being seemed to reappear in the opening of the vessel without the passage of time.

“You’ve got questions, don’t you?”

“I think might head might…Why can’t you stay longer?” I pleaded.

But the vessel was already climbing through the trees where it lingered for just a moment. As fast as I could imagine it disappeared among the stars. I laughed, settling back against the tree, where I tried to take all of this in, to convince myself that it was all a dream, though I knew better.

It was just before dawn then I finally left the forest. The morning dew was already collecting. I could hear traffic in town a mile or so away. Of coarse I would never tell a soul about this. Who the hell would believe such a wild tale, but I tell you it happened, as sure as I’m sitting here. Believe what you will, and if nothing else just ponder the message. All the rest you can discard as the ramblings of a very confused mind…

ACTIVISTS AND COMMUNITY ORGANIZERS: If you have a cause to champion, please let us know. We proudly stand with you in the important work of strengthening the grassroots support network for the city of Chicago.

BEER! Catch the Beer of The Week review with 900poundgorilla, along with weekly food pairings for our featured beers by Chef AJ Francisco and Simply Healthy Gourmet author Carole Cooper here. Find all of the great beers we review each week at www.glunzbeers.com.

Revolution and beer has been monitoring a number of Rightwing talk shows and media, from FOX to Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, local Chicago programming and more. Google “Zimmerman Trial Riots” and pages of Rightwing blogs, the proving grounds for mainstream Rightwing talk radio and FOX news’ polished and populist messaging, and you’ll find pages filled with racially charged, concocted alarmist rhetoric.

This was from one site, which will go unnamed, but sets the groundwork for the racist subtext pervading the nation from the Right since President Obama was elected:

“Well before the verdict is announced, agitators and provocateurs are already using social-media services to broadcast their intentions to unleash chaos and death. One Facebook page being investigated by authorities, for example, was entitled “RIOT for Trayvon.” In its description, the page read: “They don’t think we will tear this mutha —– [expletive deleted] up! LIKE IF YOU READY TO RIDE! LETS FLEX OUR MUSCLE! WHAT, YOU SCARED?” Other pages brazenly call for murder.”

This is a carefully crafted strategy, with the Right cloaking their intentions by pointing the finger at the innocent, like good mafia lawyers would. They accuse champions and advocates of racial inequality that still is very much alive in the nation of being “race baiters”, or “Race Hustlers.” Sean Hannity, Limbaugh, Beck, Ingraham and others denounce Obama as sowing division in American politics simply for discussing continuing racial inequity in society.

This is the sort of trash parading as humor in the absence of actual thought, and their deficit of humanity and morality

On Wednesday, while I was in Washington DC, Limbaugh said this on his program: “I really thought that one of the reasons that we elected and then reelected Barack Obama was so that there wouldn’t be any more race riots. I thought the election of the first black president would end racial strife, and so did millions of Americans who voted for Obama on that basis. Now we actually have media people agitating for race riots in regard to the George Zimmerman trial because the prosecution in this trial is imploding. We have a media that is totally invested in Zimmerman being found guilty and handing and then electrocuted and then drowned and then shot and then cremated for whatever happened to Trayvon Martin.”

Which is it, Rush, who contradicts himself in just two short sentences, which must be something of a record? Sort of like talking out of one’s ass. So is the media agitating for race riots for a in a Zimmerman acquittal while pressing for a conviction at the same time?

Beck was hysterical today, and not in the tickle and squeeze sort of way. he accused the “media” of setting “the Arab world on fire, and they set this country on fire,” during a formless and, in my informed opinion, racially targeted rant on his radio show.

“This is what will happen,” he said, if he’s (Zimmerman) is acquitted. they will either kill him in the streets or try him for civil rights violations.”

One local rightwing I-just-tell-it-like-it-is racist with a talk show in Chicago suggested that listeners invest in a window replacement company in the Florida town where the trial is taking place. Hilarious!

But at Revolution and Beer we are also always asking the question, what is the end game? There is one very obvious in provoking violence and that is the continued perpetuation of Black stereotypes, as well as the legitimacy of an overbearing and out of control status quo media. Secondary would be to split the African American community within itself, an attempt to sow distrust or fear from outside organizations helping challenged communities and to strengthen white voting constituencies into the 2016 election.

Too conspiratorial for you? As better data has emerged regarding the unprecedented numbers of enfranchised voters in the black community in the 2012 election was one of several factors leading to Obama’s re-election, those revelations have sent shockwaves through the post-Republican party. the right has struggled within itself over courting the Hispanic vote, which went almost entirely to Obama. Both of those turnouts, coupled with a disastrously low white turnout sank the right’s run for the White House. Now, with the party split and no one but possibly Michelle Bachmann and Rick Perry eyeing the adult’s chair, the post-Republicans are getting desperate. But they’ve been desperate, or have you forgotten Obama’s Kenyan past, Half-rican jokes and the birther psychos already?

ACTIVISTS AND COMMUNITY ORGANIZERS: If you have a cause to champion, please let us know. We proudly stand with you in the important work of strengthening the grassroots support network for the city of Chicago.

BEER! Catch the Beer of The Week review with 900poundgorilla, along with weekly food pairings for our featured beers by Chef AJ Francisco and Simply Healthy Gourmet author Carole Cooper here. Find all of the great beers we review each week at www.glunzbeers.com.

It was just past noon at the Apple flagship store on Chicago’s Magnificent Mile. Sunlight poured through the storefront windows, the iconic Apple-shaped window on the second floor and the skylight overhead. the doors were open, allowing the noon time traffic sounds along Michigan Avenue and a strong cool breeze among the towering downtown buildings.

I’d been alerted through carefully guarded bits and pieces of information. Inside the store there was a larger than usual number of customers at the tables brimming with the latest Apple electronics, and on the second floor as well. Mixed among them were the salespeople, clad in their ubiquitous blue polo shirts. At the door, two security guards were apparently unaware of what was about to take place.

Two members of Fair Economy Illinois suddenly appeared on the stairs with a megaphone, decrying, “Apple, Apple, you you’re no good!” Instantly that voice was joined by nearly 50 protesters throughout the store: “Pay your taxes like you should!”

Toby Chow, of Fair Economy Illinois, and a guest on the Revolution and Beer show in June told shoppers, protesters and Apple employees that, “The company paid an effective tax rate of barely 7% in 2011, while the rest of us pay 15 to 20% to support services that we all need, from roads and bridges to police and fire protection. It’s outrageous that you and I pay, on average, three times as much in taxes as one of the wealthiest corporations in the nation!”

Apple’s profits between 2009 and 2012 were over $70 billion. They have paid almost no taxes in the United States or in Illinois, despite those record profits. And Apple is not alone. Fair economy Illinois, other groups and citizens are alarmed that pensions and social programs are being cut, schools are being closed and our infrastructure is crumbling at a time when too many corporations in Illinois are paying little or nothing in income taxes.

Bill 3627 would mandate corporate tax transparency in Illinois and require that corporations disclose of basic financial information, such as Apple’s Illinois taxable income, an itemized list of tax credits, and total Illinois corporate income tax paid.

There was a spirit here. There was no wavering. The protesters were organized, peaceful and respectful, initiating a dialogue quickly behind the scenes with Apple management and then with police. Still, they were unmoved until they had a chance to make their case.

From among the protesters State representative William Davis, of the 13th district also addressed the issue, showing his full support for the protest as well as the effort to have corporations pay a fair portion of the tax burden the average citizen and small business must bear.

“Apple is not the only corporate tax dodger,” he said to applause, “but two-thirds of corporations in the state of Illinois pay nothing in Illinois corporate income tax, and every year the state loses roughly two billion dollars in tax revenue because of state corporate tax loopholes. And because of federal tax loopholes like the ones that Apple uses, Illinois loses an additional two billion dollars each year in federal revenue that is passed to the states. Four billion dollars a year would do a lot to help build communities with good schools and good jobs, with help and security for the most vulnerable in our society. But in Illinois, we have been doing the opposite — we have cut funding for education, healthcare and human services, and yet we continue to give huge tax breaks to profitable corporations.”

Police arrived as the protest was winding down. Apple security initially called police and stated there was a “mob action with criminal damage to property,” said one unnamed officer. Fewer than a dozen officers responded and were clearly annoyed at the false alarm raised by Apple security. There was no damage to property and no arrests, though business at the Apple store was briefly interrupted.

still chanting the protesters peacefully exited the store where they cheered on the sidewalk outside. Lining the walk way they continued for passersby, handing out flyers or talking to the curious individually. This is the sustained sort of pressure, both in protests and peaceful actions, as well as political pressure and citizen lobbying of a sort Fair Economy Illinois has undertaken. Revolution and Beer will be addressing the polar opposite of that in Washington DC this July 4th.

ACTIVISTS AND COMMUNITY ORGANIZERS: If you have a cause to champion, please let us know. We proudly stand with you in the important work of strengthening the grassroots support network for the city of Chicago.

BEER! Catch the Beer of The Week review with 900poundgorilla, along with weekly food pairings for our featured beers by Chef AJ Francisco and Simply Healthy Gourmet author Carole Cooper here. Find all of the great beers we review each week at www.glunzbeers.com.

I managed to make it to most every event on my list this week, from protests and press conferences to the two biggest events in Chicago this week, the Blackhawks rally and the Gay Pride parade. It was those last two events that got me to thinking. Something about each of them highlighted something stark and interesting about us as people. Let me explain.

The events could hardly have been more different. On Thursday, following the Blackhawks Stanley Cup win, the city held a parade. Mind you, this was on the heels of a Monday riot across the city as celebrations spilled into the streets, resulting in dozens of arrests, and millions of dollars in damage to property and clean up. As a comparison, in 10 months of nearly daily sustained protests by the Occupy movement, not a single window was broken. The Thursday event drew several hundred thousand to downtown and Grant Park, and again saw numerous arrests and was marred when police stopped a man carrying two handguns concealed in a pack.

There was a notable sense of aggression at the rally, reflective of a sport that condones violence as part of the game. The fist fights on the ice among players are wildly cheered, adding to the allure and draw of the game and which is too often repeated among fans in the audience. There are dozens of sites on the internet celebrating fan and player violence. It is a part of the game. it is, for fans of the sport, part of the game’s appeal.

This isn’t anti sports and pro-gay. This is a perspective, one that might not be immediately considered. I played sports and enjoy sports. I can do without the gratuitous violence, and I can do without the tribal or ape-like and gleefully erotic rage-driven destruction after a team loses or a team wins. Curious that the police always stand aside and allow the rampage when it comes to team sports, but are arrayed in ranks of riot-geared pseudo-military clad police for peaceful civil demonstrations over constitutionally protected rights. Here’s why.

There is a function that this sort of mass public masturbation serves. It affirms group think, which builds a foundation for nationalism. By the minimal response by authorities and almost anecdotal coverage by the media of what is largely committed by young white people there becomes a tacit approval for such behavior. It is the untempered fury that the state or church can temper to war. For those who believe in freedom, this is the antithesis of freedom.

By contrast the Gay Pride parades and activities around the nation, lofted upon the historic reversal of the Defense of Marriage Act, DOMA, was not anchored in rage or driven by violence. In Chicago, according to authorities, one million turned out for Pride events, rivaling the throngs that gathered for the Blackhawks rally. The Pride event was based entirely on community and love and relationships. No cars were overturned, no windows smashed. There were no fights and no arrests. Blackhawks fans rudely booed Illinois Governor Pat Quinn. Quinn, who has hardly furthered the cause of allowing gays to marry might have been jeered at those lining the parade route at the Pride event, but was politely applauded.

The spirit and energy at both events truly was a study in contrasts. At one people, complete strangers embraced at random in a spirit of joy and peace. At another, by 2pm there were ample numbers of drunken young men, many looking for a fight. One was about violent entertainment that distracts from a great game, the other was about freedom, and what is more fundamental to freedom than the choice to whom you can love and marry.

ACTIVISTS AND COMMUNITY ORGANIZERS: If you have a cause to champion, please let us know. We proudly stand with you in the important work of strengthening the grassroots support network for the city of Chicago.

BEER! Catch the Beer of The Week review with 900poundgorilla, along with weekly food pairings for our featured beers by Chef AJ Francisco and Simply Healthy Gourmet author Carole Cooper here. Find all of the great beers we review each week at www.glunzbeers.com.

Residents of Astor House have been fighting for fair and affordable low income housing since 2012. Low and fixed income, disabled, and elderly tenants are being forced out.

Today, Astor House tenants and members of the Rogers Park community are bringing their frustrations with unsafe building conditions and BJB Properties’ forced displacement of residents to 49th Ward Alderman Joe Moore’s office.

For weeks, tenants have been asking Moore to assist them in getting Joe Slezak of BJB Properties, an owner of the 1246 W. Pratt building, to the negotiating table. But Moore’s office has declined to intervene.

At a rally and 4:30 p.m. press conference outside Moore’s 7356 N. Greenview office, tenants will call on Moore to do the right thing: take action to prevent the remaining Astor House tenants from becoming homeless.

BJB has purchased dozens of buildings housing low-income tenants—such as the Hotel Chateau in Lakeview—to convert them more profitable luxury housing. Since it purchased the building, BJB has filed at least 60 eviction cases at 1246 W Pratt.

Meanwhile, management has ignored worsening problems with the building.

“I have pictures from all over the building—appliances in disrepair, bedbugs, cockroaches, rodents, elevators not working, mold, water damage, faulty fire equipment. Not to mention heat, water and electricity being turned off for days at a time,” says tenant Adenrele Adeboje.

Multiple calls into Chicago’s 311 building complaints telephone line have documented people being stuck in elevators every week, as well as narrowly missed falls after elevator doors opened to reveal an empty shaft.

“There’s a lot of elderly folks living here that can’t move around that easily. How are they going to get out when the elevator is broken for a week at a time?” asks tenant Arbie Bowman.

Like at the Hotel Chateau and Abbott Hotel, BJB has begun construction at the Astor House with little concern for the tenants still living there. Much of it occurred before the company had proper permits on display or even processed by the city. Even now, the company is doing more construction than is covered by the permits it has.

As a result, tenants have endured electricity shut-offs and construction noise from the early morning through the late evening. Dust from the project sent Bowman’s elementary-age daughter to the hospital from asthma attacks.

Weeks ago, BJB Properties began advertising apartments on Craigslist, even as its remaining tenants fight their eviction cases in court. But Loyola students, BJB’s target market, have been spreading the word about these conditions on campus.

“I can’t believe the price they are renting at. I wouldn’t pay $850 for a bedbug-infested studio. Not even with new floors!” says senior Tala Said.

She, like hundreds of Loyola students and other community members, have signed on to a boycott of BJB in protest of these conditions. “The least Alderman Moore can do is help negotiate reasonable time and compensation for tenants to move,” Said says. “If these tenants end up homeless, we will hold Alderman Moore responsible.”

ACTIVISTS AND COMMUNITY ORGANIZERS: If you have a cause to champion, please let us know. We proudly stand with you in the important work of strengthening the grassroots support network for the city of Chicago.

BEER! Catch the Beer of The Week review with 900poundgorilla, along with weekly food pairings for our featured beers by Chef AJ Francisco and Simply Healthy Gourmet author Carole Cooper here. Find all of the great beers we review each week at www.glunzbeers.com.

On Monday, July 1 at noon, Fair Economy Illinois and their partner organizations are hitting one of the nation’s biggest corporate deadbeats to raise awareness about the company’s sweeping failure to pay their fair share of Illinois and federal taxes. The protest is part of a broad campaign to support corporate tax transparency legislation in Illinois, in what promises to be one of the fall legislative season’s most energized grassroots legislative efforts in Springfield.

Illinois doesn’t have to be broke, charge activists. Two-thirds of corporations operating in the state pay no Illinois corporate income tax – and the target company’s tax evasion alone costs hundreds of millions of dollars in lost revenue each year for Illinois residents and their schools, public safety systems and other civic agencies.

Nippon Sharya, a railcar manufacturer received almost $10million in state and local tax breaks, and a billion in state and federal contracts for 80 jobs. Tax breaks will more than pay for the jobs, giving the company millions in taxpayer funded profit and making the workers essentially a welfare work program.

81% of the State of Illinois’ revenue comes from income and sales taxes on goods purchased by ordinary residents, while only 8% of Illinois’ revenue comes from corporate income tax payments. That fundamental inequity forces working people to pay higher taxes – and forces children, the elderly, the disabled, state employees and local communities to bear the burden of cuts to education, healthcare, retirement security and frontline public services, say tax accountability advocates.

Tax fairness starts with tax transparency, say members of Fair Economy Illinois and its partner groups, who are pushing legislation in Springfield that would force the disclosure of corporations that are paying no taxes in Illinois – and the reasons for those tax dodges. House Bill 3627 — introduced this May by Barbara Flynn Currie — would address the current cover-up. The Senate passed a similar bill, SB 282, in November but it was killed in the House Revenue Committee by both Democratic and Republican legislators.

Nearly 80% of Illinois voters say legislation to require publicly-traded corporations to disclose how much they pay in Illinois corporate income tax is a good idea — with 75% of Republicans, 80% of Democrats and 84% of Independents saying it is a good idea — according to a survey by Public Policy Polling. Read the entire poll here: http://bit.ly/17lvzaH
Fair Economy Illinois: http://www.faireconomyillinois.org

ACTIVISTS AND COMMUNITY ORGANIZERS: If you have a cause to champion, please let us know. We proudly stand with you in the important work of strengthening the grassroots support network for the city of Chicago.

BEER! Catch the Beer of The Week review with 900poundgorilla, along with weekly food pairings for our featured beers by Chef AJ Francisco and Simply Healthy Gourmet author Carole Cooper here. Find all of the great beers we review each week at www.glunzbeers.com.

Hi y’all, I’m Paula Dean’s apology. It wasn’t my fault that Paula got fired. I’m only the apology, y’all, not a miracle worker. I don’t put the words in her mouth, I just try to get her past them. See, y’all, there are two kinds of apologies. There is the one from the heart, and the other to save your ass. I’ll leave it to you to decide which one Paula was using.

See, this is how it works. A client, in this case Ms. Dean, commits what we in the industry call an “Oh no she didn’t” moment. Now, many clients complicate that with an outraged and vehement denial, often while getting out of a car or running through and airport, followed by an official statement from a spokesperson. Never good. Makes my job that much harder, and it is never quite believed by anyone. In extreme situations, we recommend checking into some institution until the heat and Press attention blows over, but that’s your choice. I’m just the apology. Lindsay Lohan, that’s a shout out to you, girl!

Look, there are critics out there who are claiming Paula Dean’s apology wasn’t sincere enough. For one, it didn’t help that she came off looking like a character from Willy Wonka’s factory! I can tell y’all that I was one hell of an apology, enough to make the Lincoln Monument cry. Put the blame on the speaker, not me. I’m an apology not a babysitter!

Besides, Paula isn’t my only client, and the apology business has really gotten busy these days. I haven’t been this busy since the Nuremburg Trials. Thought I would get hammered after September 2001, or the Iraq Invasion/weapons of mass destruction kerfuffle, instead I got one lonesome client in Richard Clarke. Thought I might have heard something after Katrina, but I called that one wrong and for that, hey, I am truly sorry-no, just kidding.

I suppose we should be thankful that Paula apologized at all. Seriously, after all the millions she made from cookbooks and TV, and a lot of recipes made with an African American woman who was barely paid above minimum wage, or thinking she could throw slave plantation parties for rich white folks with black servers dressed as slaves she ought to be sorry. She could have denied, hid behind an attorney, or worse, shoved a camera man while snapping a hasty “no comment!” Let’s face it, y’all, you will have to eventually apologize, unless you are BP, FOX News, Monsanto, David Vitter or anyone producing reality TV shows.

But she apologized, for whatever that was worth. She’s gonna take her lumps, like the rest of us common folk would have to. An apology doesn’t get you out of trouble, it just begins the road back. The rest of you, especially in politics, the Chicago School Board and bankers would do well to remember that. And please, please, please, y’all, don’t do this by yourself. Leave the apologies to professionals like me…Got to run, Rush Limbaugh is talkin…oh, why do I even bother?!

ACTIVISTS AND COMMUNITY ORGANIZERS: If you have a cause to champion, please let us know. We proudly stand with you in the important work of strengthening the grassroots support network for the city of Chicago.

BEER! Catch the Beer of The Week review with 900poundgorilla, along with weekly food pairings for our featured beers by Chef AJ Francisco and Simply Healthy Gourmet author Carole Cooper here. Find all of the great beers we review each week at www.glunzbeers.com.